A White House news release on March 19 announced that the Obama administration is launching the Climate Data Initiative, a key part of which is a new government website to make access to the administration’s selective data on climate change more readily available.

Thanks to the success of U.S. oil companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — a process used to extract oil trapped in shale formations — the United States will soon pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer. Both Saudi Arabia and the United States passed Russia for the top spot in recent years.

The House of Representatives has approved a bill to block President Obama’s climate plan that aimed at regulating so-called carbon pollution from new power plants. The bill passed by a vote of 229 to 183, with 10 Democrats voting with Republicans and three Republicans opposed.